Your Turn: Everyone doesn’t love a parade
It’s that time of week again – the time for you to sound off on all things NASCAR.
If you’ve got an opinion you’d like to share – and the more diverse the opinion, the better chance you have of getting published – you can be a part of Your Turn by emailing us your rants right here.
We’ll kick things off with Christina Stubbe of Nashville, Tenn., who is just one of many with thoughts on, what else, Talladega:
Yesterday’s race at Talladega is the exact reason I gave up my season tickets two years ago. In 10 years I had not missed one race there. After the CoT was introduced and I attended my last race in October of 2007, I was horrified to watch 43 cars line up nose to tail and just ride around for 450 miles. I did not pay the high ticket prices to watch my driver ride around at the tail end of the train.
I had the race on yesterday, but spent my time doing better things like moving furniture to sweep and mop and taking down my Halloween decorations.
NASCAR needs to really take a look at the product, or lack of product, they are producing. The new no bump drafting rule prior to the start of the race was not a good idea. If this is the racing we are going to be subjected to, and after 3 years it appears to be that way, just shorten the race to 50 laps. Fans might get to see some actual racing and they will get home a lot earlier.
And there’s this from Aron of Pleasant Hill, Calif.:
Why does NASCAR choose to waste my Sunday? Seriously, why not just have the Talladega race be 10-15 laps total so we can skip right over the sleepfest/hanging-out-till-10-to-go parts of it.
I found myself in my living room saying, “LAME” over and over and over to my television. Isn’t this supposed to be a RACE?! See, now I’ve even lost my train of thought for the rest of this
email because my brain just keeps saying, “LAME!”
And this from Jay Jay of Hartford City, Ind.:
Thank you NASCAR for making Talledega a boring race. Now I can find something else to do on Saturday nights and Sundays.
My hat is off to Jimmie Johnson. You are truly the class of the field.
NASCAR you have killed your sport. Expect a lot more empty seats at your races.
K.B. of Los Gatos, Calf., wants to make good use of Jimmie Johnson:
I need to take Jimmie with me to Vegas. Guy is magic.
Darryl Thornton of LaFollette, Tenn., is sick of hearing about Jimmie Johnson winning just because of the 10 tracks in the Chase:
Would it please the so called bored Nascar fans that apparently like drivers that are losers like Dale Jr., if they automatically included Jr. in every Chase each year and start Jimmie Johnson 100 or 200 points in the hole?
As far as the track selection for the Chase races, I thought it was pretty much the same races and order that NASCAR ran prior to the start of the Chase. Am I wrong? Did they select the 10 best race tracks for Jimmie Johnson just to bore all of the fans of losing drivers? Jimmie Johnson – The Dominator
Tony of Terre Haute, Ind., has his own take on the 10 Chase tracks:
I would like to respond to a comment about the 10 tracks not bringing out the best driver. Jimmie Johnson has won 29 of his 46 races at the Chase tracks. Some would say that his struggles at Bristol, Daytona, etc. suggest that if those tracks were in the Chase, he wouldn’t win.
Allow me to correct that point of view.
Chad Knaus and JJ spend all of their time and effort on 10 tracks. They don’t need to win at Bristol, Daytona, etc. The day NASCAR adds Bristol to the Chase is the day the 48 is doing burnouts on the World’s Fastest Half-Mile. The same goes for any other track added to the Chase. JJ will win at whatever tracks NASCAR puts in the Chase. That team is just that good (that smart).
Until another team uses the philosophy of “Get in and then Dominate,” that 48 team is going to continue to rewrite the record books.
Bob True of Carrollton, Texas, chimes in on the crew chief change for Kyle Busch:
I’m sure there will be a lot of comments on the crew chief change for Kyle Busch. JGR may be smarter than I am, but I just don’t see how they justified the change. I don’t see that it’s the fault of the crew chief when the driver makes some bad decisions and has a mind set of “checkers or wreckers.” The July race in Daytona is a prime example, and Kyle could have gotten in the Chase had he not have made that decision
(I don’t think Tony had enough of a run to make the pass )
I think Steve Addngton should be commended for putting up with all of the bad mouthing from Kyle, during the first 75% of the season. Kyle seems to have had an attitude adjustment just before the Chase started. My bet is the coach had a little chat with him.
You don’t have to win a bunch of races to make the chase, just be consistent. Good luck with your driver Dave.
Mike Billingsley of Ofallon, Mo., has this take on Kyle Busch:
I thinks it too bad that Addington’s taking the fall for Kyle’s over emotional driving style. How many points were thrown away on the road to the chase by Kyle trying to overdrive bad cars? He could have stuck with the car, improved as the race went on and the taken what points he could. He would have made the Chase.
It’s a lesson I wouldn’t want to teach a child. “Bad behavior gets rewarded.”
Kyle is perhaps the most talented driver out there but as far as being a man goes he’s probably last.
Mike from San Clemente, Calif., had an epiphany watching a race from back in the day:
I was watching an older race on SPEED the other day and my son sat down and soon after said “these cars look way faster than usual, is this new?”
Interestingly, he validated what I had been thinking for a while, the new car (CoT) does appear to the naked eye to be slower on the track when watching a race.
SO … instead of complaining about the COT, I have a question: Is the new car just so stable and aero friendly with the rear wing, that it will always appear slower and glued to the track?
I think what my son was feeling was increased excitement and energy coming off the telecast of the older races.
I’m all for safety and saving lives so I applaud the advances of the CoT, but can’t we keep the safety while upping the excitement.
And finally, our boy Eric Burleigh of Lake City, Mich., is back with yet another suggestion:
I still think NASCAR should include a good ‘ole fashioned’ dirt-track race in their schedule (and I don’t even care if it’s a non-point race). I bet the fans would get a kick out of seeing a nationally televised ‘down and dirty’ slug- fest off of the pavement, and Eldora Speedway would be a perfect inaugural venue. Seriously! It’s time for NASCAR to ‘mix it up’ a bit. Wouldn’t that be great!?!
Start your engines! Sign up for Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Auto Racing '09 today. And follow the race action with TrackPass on NASCAR.com.
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